The present invention relates to an electronic equipment housing usable for various types of electronic equipment such as notebook-type personal computers, portable information instruments, portable acoustic instruments, and on-vehicle electric materials.
In general, the electronic equipment housings are used to protect electronic circuits and other parts and exposed to increased requirements with respect to precise parts mount, strength, heat radiation and others year-by-year. In addition, it is required to reduce the manufacturing and developing costs.
The electronic equipment housings according to the prior art had been mainly formed of plastics. However, the plastic electronic equipment housings tend to increase their wall-thickness for stiffness improvement, and provide degraded heat radiating properties and are also less effective for electromagnetic shield.
Recently, there have been used electronic equipment housings of magnesium or magnesium alloy. The magnesium is sufficiently stiff to form the housings into reduced wall-thickness, better in heat radiation and more effective in electromagnetic shielding. One of the electronic equipment housings formed of magnesium or magnesium alloy is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Hei 10-151410, for example.
Another electronic equipment housing using panels of aluminum, which is higher in strength and lighter in weight, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Hei 10-147857, for example.
In a certain field of industrial application different from that of the present invention, there are known many anti-vibration steel plates of laminated structure in which a plastic or other is sandwiched between metal plates. Various types of laminated structures include a foamed material sandwiched between steel plates (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Hei 3-244514); a plastic layer sandwiched between aluminum palates (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Sho 59-24660); and a magnesium layer sandwiched between steel plates (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Hei 2-111524).
Since the electronic equipment housings of magnesium, magnesium alloy, aluminum or the like are superior in heat radiation, they can more effectively cause heating elements or others to radiate heat therefrom.
As shown in FIG. 20A, however, heat cannot effectively be radiated from a heating part 53 when two metal plates 50 and 51 are bonded to each other through an adhesive 52 and if one of the two metal plates contacting the heating part 53 is thinner, because said one metal plate provides a narrowed area to which the heat goes from the heating part 53.
As shown in FIG. 20B, furthermore, air bubbles 63 may occur in an adhesive 62 when two metal plates 60 and 61 are bonded to each other through the adhesive 62, because the adhesive 62 will not uniformly be applied to the bond area if the bonding area between the metal plates 60 and 61 is too large. If the air bubbles 63 occur in the adhesive 62, various problems may be raised in that the heat transfer from one metal plate 60 to the other metal plate 61 is degraded, that the adhesive strength in the adhesive 62 is reduced, that the metal plates 60 and 61 are forcedly separated from each other under the action of thermal expansion in the air bubbles 63, and so on.
If all the portions of the housing are to be produced by bonding plate-like members together, there is required much time to produce any housing portion that is required to have its larger thickness as in the peripheral frame.
Furthermore, since the heat conduction cannot properly be controlled in the laminated structure of the prior art anti-vibration steel plates, it could attain that heat is desirably transferred to a desired location, or, in other words heat is not desirably transferred to the desired location.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electronic equipment housing which can efficiently radiate heat from heating parts, which can prevent air bubbles from occurring in an adhesive between plate-like members, which can reduce time required to produce an electronic equipment housing and which can properly control the heat conduction.
In a first aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by bonding two or more plate-like members.
In a second aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by bonding two or more plate-like members, these plate-like members being different in thickness from one another.
In a third aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by bonding two or more plate-like members and that one plate-like member on a heating portion is formed to be larger in thickness than the other adjacent plate-like member.
In a fourth aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by bonding two or more plate-like members and that at least one groove or hole is formed in the bond area between the adjacent bonded plate-like members.
In a fifth aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by a plate-like member of metal having its thickness equal to or smaller than 1.2 mm and a frame member mounted on one surface of the plate-like member. The frame member may be made of metal, for example.
In a sixth aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by bonding two or more plate-like members and that the bond area between the adjacent boded plate-like members includes a heat-conduction regulating portion. The heat-conduction regulating portion may be at least one of various means such as a part of plastically deforming a portion of the plate-like member, spot-welding portion, heat conducting sheet, adhesive and heat insulator, which is disposed in any suitable place.
In a seventh aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by bonding two or more plate-like members, the plate-like members being formed with openings serving as means for reducing their weight.
In an eighth aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by bonding two or more plate-like members and that a heat pipe is mounted on said plate-like member. The heat pipe may be supported by outwardly turned cutouts in the plate-like member.
In a ninth aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by bonding two or more plate-like members and that an electronic part is mounted on said plate-like member. The electronic part may be mounted on outwardly turned cutouts in the plate-like member.
In a tenth aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by bonding two or more plate-like members and that a heat conducting member is provided between a plate-like member and a heating part mounted thereon.
In an eleventh aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by bonding two or more plate-like members, said plate-like members including openings formed therein for heat insulation.
In a twelfth aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that it is formed by an integrally formed plate-like member, said plate-like member being formed with openings for heat insulation.
In a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, an electronic equipment housing is characterized in that the bond area between metallic plate-like members is subjected to any suitable chemical conversion such as phosphoric-acid chromating, chromic-acid chromating or the like.
The plate-like members may be bonded together through an adhesive.
The plate-like members may be partially formed of metal.
The plate-like members may be formed of any material selected from a group consisting of aluminum, aluminum alloys, copper, copper alloys, magnesium, magnesium alloys and MMC.